phakding

No. I have lots of hobbies and I travel a lot. But I usually go to places like Norway, or Nepal for trekking. Having 4 day weekends would mean nothing to me.

I could use more vacation time. Instead of 5 weeks I get now, I could use 8 weeks of vacation time and I would sacrifice 1/12 of my salary for that.

This looks pretty good, unfortunately it's windows only.

I worked for an exchange and it was not blocked there. I worked for a car automation company and it wasn't blocked there either. My following two jobs were at multinational banks. In the first one, it was blocked. In the second, I took a "social media responsibility" training and I was added to the exclusion list and I could access Facebook, Reddit, Twitter etc. Now I work for a small finance company and the network is wide open.

How much experience do you have? Or are you fresh out of college? In the later case it takes a while if you need a visa.

It is also possible that your resume is unreadable, or does not convey right information easily. You might need to have someone look at yours.

I am willing to help you. I have been on my seventh job and it took me frustratingly long time to find my first job. It hasnt been hard since then.

:) Thanks. I wish I was a better writer. I thought about writing a fiction based on my life many times, but I am not even close to being a decent writer

Ha! Can't tell if you are being sarcastic.

Thank you. I appreciate your sentiments.

There's definitely a survivorship bias. It worked out for me with lot of hard work and few strokes of luck here and there. I know bunch of my classmates from grade school who couldn't do much with their lives because they lacked resources and opportunities.

I understand your impatience with your countrymen, but without enough resources and opportunities, it's hard to make any progress for vast majority. I know Americans like to tell their less fortunate to pick themselves up with their bootstraps, but that's an almost impossible task, literally and figuratively.

My story is not too different. I grew up in a dirt poor Asian village. We didn't have running water and for first few years of my life, not even a toilet. Parents taking active part in kids education was not common. I remember my parents bought be one toy when I was in second or third grade, and that was it. We used to get one pair of new clothes once every year during festivals. That's about it. Nobody ever celebrated birthdays. I don't even think I remembered my own birthday growing up.

On top of that my parents fought like cats and dogs almost everyday.

The only thing that helped me survive and succeed was my competitive nature and perseverance. I worked hard, and still do, for things I want. I am not trying to brag, but starting in abject poverty and then ending up in a one of the biggest American cities making $200k is surreal.

Enigma

Take a decision. If that turned out to be a good decision, think back and remember how you took that decision. If it turned out to be a bad decision, remember how you took that decision. Learn from your mistakes and soon you will be an expert decision maker.

There definitely was. I remember telling this to my college roommate few years ago after he gradually gained lot of weight and was diagnosed as pre-diabetic.

The daily by NY Times

Radiolab

Real time with Bill Maher

Wait wait dont tell me

snap judgement

Freaknomics

I would disagree with the notion that degree wouldn't benefit you much. Well of course, you could go to a mediocre/lousy university and end up taking all very easy courses and then your degree will mean nothing. But if you look at the successful people (not entirely financially like Gates) in the computing field, every single one of them have Masters and PhD's. If you did college just for sake of getting a degree, you will end up having just a degree.

For some reason, in this country, education is looked down upon. That is very unfortunate.

Why don't you get one? You are still young and your brain is still developing. Get a degree in comp sci and be on your merry way.

I don't do the meditation exactly, but I recently trekked to Mt Everest base camp and stayed in Nepal for few days. I get mentally overwhelmed with the natural beauty and that sort of creates effect similar to meditation.

After coming back, I feel much calmer. Very few negative thoughts occur in my mind and I noticed that I don't get worked up that easily. I somehow learned to not get angry at the slightest provocation.

Not sure if this helps you, but thought I would put it out there.